From: Ian blenkharn@ianblenkharn.com
Category: Miscellaneous
Date: 16 Feb 2008
Time: 15:16:06 +0100
Remote Name: 86.134.111.185
Yes, reusable sharps boxes will contribute a small volume of pharmaceutical residues to the environment as these are washed prior for re-use.
Though these small contributions to environmental contamination should not be dismissed completely, to put this into context this is a trivial contribution to the environmental burden when compared with the normal excretion usually in urine of anything between 90% and 99.9% of the administered dose. Thus for every prescription drug, and most of the illegal ones too, virtually every drop will end up in sewage and ultimately in our rivers.
Add to this the tonnes of pharmaceuticals given to animals, for veterinary care or, most often, for commercially-motivated growth promotion.
That is where the problem really lies and fiddling with the regulation of clinical wastes that may contain de minimis quantities of POM residues is a gross waste of public funds.
Ian
First posted 12-Feb-2008